GoldDecember 31, 1999
Patterson, Joseph 
[ASTR 1403] Earth, Moon, and Planets
Please keep in mind that this review is more than 5 years old.
As a history major with a minor interest in science, this was the absolutely perfect way to fulfill the requirement. Professor Patterson was among the best instructors I've had at CU. He's funny and he made me like the subject a lot more than I thought I would. He also wears astonomically themed neckties, and invited students over to his house for a read through of Brecht's "Galileo." A lot on the history of Astronomy and not too much physics, thank god. Definitely worth taking.
One unbelievably easy problem set every two weeks or so. Some of the questions are very random ("estimate how many atoms of the air you breathe were once breathed by Julius Ceasar") but generally simple and the TA's can be very useful. Midterm and Final were also easy; each had a lot of poetry-based extra credit, where you identify the heavenly bodies refered to in snippets of poetry.